Showcase Showdown

And here we are rounding the turn before the final stretch of this grueling process. There is no clear leader, no clue as to what the outcome of this race will be. All the entrants are flagging a bit, you can tell they are tired. The showcase is less than a week away. Final decisions have been made. Scenes are being cut shorter and shorter. The showcase order is being continually tweaked. And everyone is a little bit on edge. Either that or just plain exhausted. I think I fall into both categories. I am certainly ready for this whole process to be over. At this point in the game I am completely second guessing my song choice. My instructors went back and forth between two of my songs. They started leaning towards one and then the other, ending with a preference for the opener from Thoroughally Modern Millie. I asked them to give me another shot at my other piece, as I thought it might make me stand out a bit more from the crowd. I figure everyone belts, all the time. So if I bring in a Sondheim piece it is a bit more unusual. Also I love the song. However it is quite a bit harder than the Millie. They let me have another try at the song and in the end said that I convinced them that I could do it. So now I am singing On the Steps of the Palace from Into the Woods. One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite shows. However, now I am starting to get worried. What if they were right? Is the other piece a better showcase for me? What if I cant pull it off? Nothing terribly unusual about this. I just have to push through it. Also I cannot let my guard down on this song. I wanted to sing it, so I am going to do everything in my power to knock it out of the park. I just have to remind myself that I can do this! My scene I am feeling much better about. They finally settled on the scene from A View from the Bridge. I love the play, I love the scene, I enjoy working with my scene partner. However the scene does get cut shorter and shorter every time we have to bring it in. I think the scene still works, but it was a very difficult process cutting it down. It is hard not to feel like we have cut important stuff. I know that for this performance, which is directed towards Agents, the entire scene is not necessary. But it still a little distubring that we have gone from having a scene that was two pages long to one that is half a page long. But while everyone else is still trying to find things to cut, we have our final length. Which means that we can focus on fine tuning what we have rather than on what we still have to lose. So all in all, feeling pretty good about the scene. Now we get into the fun drama of the show running order. Now they have picked a tactic for this that I dont really agree with. There are 11 scenes, and 21 songs. They have generally arranged it that one person from each scene will sing directly after their scene. Part of that I understand. If an agent is interested in seeing one person in particular then all of their stuff is bunched together. However this does mean that if you are in the second half of the running order, like I am, you do not step on stage until the second half of the show. Now in a busy industry in a big city like London, there is a large possibility that many of the agents will not stay for the entire show. Even though it is only an hour. So for those of us towards the end.... well we will probably have a smaller audience. Which is a bit discouraging. Personally to make it a little more even I would think that you would want to space it out a bit. Those who have scenes in the first half should sing in the second and vice versa. Now our course leaders keep trying to assure us that no one will leave, but this is a little hard to believe as they have spent the weeks preceeding telling us that agents wont stay the whole time. I can just only hope that people will stick around. They also go back and forth between telling us this is the most important project of the year, that we really want to get an agent out of this, to then telling us that it is not so important. That getting an agent is not something we should stress about. I am sure it will all turn out fine. But they have done a pretty good job of freaking us out and messing with our minds a bit. All I can do now is just focus on taking care of myself for the next week. Trying not to stress, focusing my work as much as possible. Oh wait. Breaking news. We have just been sent our third or fourth revised running order. Now my scene is second. So strike all that stuff about being worried about not being seen! YAY! I have the rest of today off, and I have spent the morning at school working. So I am going to go find something fun to do with my time. Tomorrow we are back for rehearsals all day. Then Sunday is our day to recoup before teching on Monday. Then Tuesday David arrives for the week (which I am super excited). After that is the final stretch! Two previews on Wednesday, and then our big show on Thursday. After that David and I are going to have an awesome weekend full of theatre, exploring and a trip to Oxford. Such a nice reward to look forward to.